“Pachamama” – Mother Earth is worshipped by Peruvians. 5 minutes in the Sacred Valley, and you can see why...

The Sacred Valley is the stretch of the Andes that lies between Cusco and Machu Picchu – a stretch of villages and ruins, and picture perfect panoramas as you drive through mountains, quinoa, potato, and corn fields, agricultural terraces and beautiful Inca ruins. During our recent trip to Peru, we spent a day exploring this gorgeous valley, and highly recommend you spend some time there.

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu really is an amazing trek and experience, but it does require a bit of planning. Here’s what you need to know if you are considering doing this once in a lifetime experience. Read on for planning tips.

Day 4 of the trail goes by fast, everyone just wants to get it done. The final day of the trail starts at 3.30 am. We woke up, had the usual coca tea, packed our things and walked to the control checkpoint where we joined all our fellow hikers at about 4.15am, waiting for the checkpoint to open at 5.30 am.

At the end of the second day of the Inca Trail, I felt a massive relief that the hard part was over and that it would be non-stop fun all the time from there on out. As it turned out, Day 3 was THE HARDEST part of the hike for me. It was mostly nerve wracking due to the steep Inca stone steps that we had to descend for hours on end.

After a fun and successful first day hiking the Inca trail, we awoke on Day 2 knowing that the day would be intense – our main goal was to hike up to the menacing sounding Dead Woman’s pass, the highest elevation we would reach in the 4 day trail.